


Hide your Face (So the World Will Never Find You)

by neozeka



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, Alternate Universe - Thieves, Ballroom Dancing, Costume Parties & Masquerades, M/M, Not Even a Kiss, Really Really Tame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-15
Updated: 2014-11-15
Packaged: 2018-02-25 11:20:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2619908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neozeka/pseuds/neozeka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis is a master thief, and one of the most wanted criminals in the kingdom. When he hears that Prince Harry is holding a public masquerade ball to find a potential queen, Louis can’t pass up the opportunity to go after the crown jewels. </p><p>Or the one in which Harry is a prince, Louis is definitely not Cinderella, there is still a ball, and the magic doesn’t end at midnight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hide your Face (So the World Will Never Find You)

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Larry fic, so sorry. I tried >>  
> This was written for Karukara's Masquerade contest, I'm a little late so I hope he accepts it anyway

Louis is sprawled across their threadbare couch, flipping through channels when a news headline catches his eye. He shushes Liam and Zayn--who are arguing about the proper way to cook pasta--and raises the volume.

_“In other news, Prince Harry has single-handedly raised chaos among young adults today throughout the kingdom, when he announced that he will be looking for a potential queen at a public masquerade, to take place at the castle in three days time. The young Prince, now of marrying age at eighteen, announced his intent to marry at the beginning of the year. As all of us know, the Prince hasn’t made an official public appearance since the death of the King. Citizens today were shocked when he showed up in person to make this announcement.”_

The newscaster continued on to speak about how women were rushing to find dresses, but Louis has heard enough. He hits the mute button, and turns around to face his mates.

“Well? What do you boys think?” He asks, draping himself over the back of the couch. 

“I wasn’t aware that you wanted to be a Princess.” Zayn replies, smirking. 

Louis rolls his eyes, and pitches the remote at Zayn’s head. He misses, and hits Liam instead, who curses and shoots him a glare. 

“Sorry, you can blame Zee for that one. But anyways, the bloody ball isn’t what I meant. The castle’s going to be open to the public for the first time in years! This is a perfect chance to go after something royal.” Louis explains. He shifts to the end of the couch as Zayn vaults over the back to sit next to him.

“And what exactly would we go after? We haven’t the slightest idea what is being stored there, or where anything could be.” Zayn reasonably points out. “And not to mention, the very sight of our mugs would instantly get us arrested.” 

Zayn had a solid point; the three of them haven’t stepped out in public in what seemed like ages. Their faces were posted on practically every street corner, under the word ‘WANTED’ and above the word ‘REWARD.’ To step outside in broad daylight would be to basically turn themselves in. 

But still, Louis grins. “Not a problem. Masquerade ball! Everyone’s going to be wearing a mask, so we just gotta make sure that we pick masks that cover up our faces all the way.”

“And what about the fact that we don’t know anything about the layout or contents of the place?” Zayn asks him, face still skeptical. 

“We could always hire Niall to run tech.” Liam suggests from the stove. “He’s never let us down before. In fact, with a job as big as this, I think we’d have to hire him anyway.” 

Zayn appears to think it over, before nodding his head slowly. “Yeah… yeah, this might actually work. Put Niall on tech, myself on the actual navigating and stealing, Liam on getaway car duty-”

“And me on distraction duty!” Louis finishes, grin growing wider by the minute. “If you take out the fact that it’s royalty we’re dealing with, it’s practically the same as every job we’ve had before.” He jumps up, and pumps a fist in the air. “Who’s with me?” He yells.

“Shut up, you’re going to get us noise complaints!” Liam yells back, throwing a noodle at the other boy. 

 

 

Three days later, Louis is eyeing himself in the mirror as Liam and Zayn finish decking themselves out in their work gear. Louis has never had to wear anything so formal before, and he turns to look at himself from all angles. His admiring is cut short when Zayn drops a cloak on his head.

“Better put this on too. I’m worried that your big arse will give away your identity.” He jokes, pinching said arse.

“Shut up.” Louis retorts, untangling himself from the long cloak. “My arse is a work of art, thank you very much.”

“Works of art are easily recognizable!” Calls Niall from where he’s set up his tech in front of the couch. 

Louis just huffs, and pulls the cloak over his shoulders. “Don’t be stupid. No one is going to be able to recognize me from my arse. How do I look?” He asks, doing a little spin. 

“You look great Louis, really.” Liam says earnestly, giving his friend an encouraging smile. “Try not to draw TOO much attention, okay?” 

“Alright boys, here, put these in.” Niall orders, holding out three small wireless earbuds in his hand. Each boy grabs one and fits it into their ears. “Remember, I can hear you too, so whisper if you need anything.”

Niall wishes them luck as they leave the small apartment. His constant chattering keeps them company as they head to the car. Liam drives them towards the castle, as Zayn gathers his nerves, and Louis chats with Niall. They can’t deny that there is a lot of tension in the car, no matter how much they’ve tried to convince themselves that this was just another normal job. By the time that Liam parks the car in an alleyway near the castle, Zayn’s nerves have somewhat transferred to Louis. 

Louis takes a deep breath, and shoots a smile at his friends before pulling his masquerade mask on. “Alright boys. Here we go. Good luck in there.” He hops out of the car to calls of good luck, and makes his way to the castle. 

There is a quick check for weapons at the castle’s main entrance, but then he’s in. He tries not to let his mouth drop at the sheer beauty of the place, but ends up looking at the extravagant decorations in awe. A small buzz in his ear draws his attention back, Niall confirming that Zayn has infiltrated the upper floors. He removes his cloak and hands it to one of the servants, with a thankful nod.

Grabbing a flute of champagne, Louis moves himself over to the garden doors, placing himself close enough to a crowd to look as if he were taking part in the conversation, but far enough so he doesn’t actually draw attention to himself. He busies himself by listening to Niall navigate Zayn around the air vents. They’re working on opening the vent from the inside when Louis feels a presence to his side.

He turns to face a curly-haired not-stranger. He internally goes through every curse and swear he knows, but puts his most charming smile on. “Is there something I can assist you with, Your Highness?” Louis asks, carefully making his voice syrupy-sweet. He hears someone--Liam probably--curse in his ear. 

The man in the raven mask cocks his head to the side, like a dog that is adorably confused. “How’d you know it was me?” He inquires, in his deep, rumbling voice. Louis mentally scolds himself for feeling a bit weak in the knees. 

“Come on now, your curls instantly give you away.” The shorter boy answers, playfully tugging on a curl. 

The Prince smiles, and returns the tug on a small lock of hair at the nape of Louis' neck. “Well, I’m Harry. Styles. Which you knew.” He awkwardly laughs, which Louis attempts to not be endeared by. “What’s your name?” Harry questions, lightly running his hand down Louis’ arm, before pulling it away.

“You’re not supposed to ask!” Louis teases, “It’s a masquerade, you know, the magic of the anonymous and all that.”

“Very well then, mystery boy. May I have this dance?” He formally requests, bowing to the shorter boy, and offering an arm. Louis grins, and places his hand on the offered arm, trying to ignore the looks of jealousy directed at him.

“You may.” He laughs, as Harry leads him to the dance floor. The Prince holds him much closer than may be publicly accepted, and twirls him around the floor. The chatter around them seems to fade away, the glittering of ladies' dresses and the lights swirl around them like magic, and Harry's scent is absolutely intoxicating. Louis is completely lost in the moment.

And then Harry steps on Louis’ foot.

And then he steps on Louis’ foot again.

“Sorry, sorry.” The Prince apologizes, flashing him a charming smile. Louis laughs, and stomps on his foot in retaliation. 

Harry laughs, and steps next to Louis, thankfully on the opposite side of his earbud. He slips an arm around Louis’ waist, steering him towards the large doors. “Is this alright?” The taller man asks, sounding a bit unsure of himself. Louis nods, and shoots a small, private smile at him, which Harry returns. “How does a walk in the gardens sound? I think that might work a lot better than dancing.”

Louis giggles--fucking giggles, he thinks, I’m not a kid--nods again, and subtly moves himself closer to the prince. “I’d like that a lot.” He admits. The two start down a wide path, with candles lit on either side.

“Tell me about yourself.” Harry’s voice cuts through his thoughts. “Are you from around here?”

“I am. I’m twenty, I live with two of my best mates, or well, two-and-a-half really, since another one is over so often.” Louis starts, hearing a small ‘Heyyy’ in his ear, “I like to eat, staying active, music, and messing with my mates. I’ve got a whole bunch of younger siblings up North, but I don’t really get to visit that often.”

“That’s unfortunate.” The Prince replies, sounding genuinely sad about it. “I don’t know what’d I do if I didn’t see Gemma every day.” 

“That’s very sweet of you.” Louis says, smiling. “Aren’t you going to tell me about yourself?”

Harry laughs, wrapping his arm a little bit tighter around the shorter boy. “Why? Don’t you know all about me from the papers and such?”

“Can’t really trust those, you know?” Louis shrugs. He swears Harry’s eyes gleam, but it might be his imagination. “I’d really rather hear from you.” 

The answering smile is absolutely blinding, and Louis forgets how to breathe for a second. He doesn’t even realize he’s frozen in place until Harry gives a small tug forward. The two walk along the path as the night goes on, exchanging stories and facts about their lives. In the middle of listening to Harry recounting how he and Gemma scared the hell out of their tutor once, Louis becomes aware of a commotion in his ear.

“Zayn? Zayn, where the fuck are you? Louis, can you still hear me? Come on boys, give me a tap or something!” 

Crap. The boys. Somehow, in the midst of getting to know this unbelievably amazing boy, Louis forgot about the whole reason that they were there. He gives a small tap against his ear, disguising the movement as tucking a bit of hair behind his ear. Harry doesn’t seem to notice either way, leading them further and further away from the castle. 

“Oh thank God, Louis, Zayn’s been discovered. Get back to the car as soon as you can.” Niall instructed. “How far away from the car are you? Give me one tap for every five minutes.” 

Louis is trying to mentally calculate how quickly he can get away from Harry when Liam’s voice interrupts. “Zayn’s made it back to the car! He lost his earbud somewhere in the struggle, but they know something’s up. Louis, you’ve got to get back here now.” He demands, sounding worried. 

At this point, Harry has stopped walking, and is giving Louis a concerned look. “Are you alright? You just suddenly stopped walking.” 

“Actually, I’ve, uh, got to go.” Louis mumbles, trying to figure out the quickest way to get back to the car. He hasn’t the slightest idea of where he is. Thankfully, Niall starts shouting directions in his ear.

“Wait, why? Wait, don’t go.” Harry pleads, grabbing hold of Louis’ arm. Louis doesn’t want to, but he shoves the other boy’s hand off, and turns to start running. Harry’s shock gives him a head start, but he soon hears the other boy curse and start after him.

“Wait! Wait, please wait, don’t go.” The Prince begs, growing desperate.

Louis tries to ignore him, tries to ignore the feeling of wrongwrongwrong that gnaws at his stomach, and runs faster.

“ _Louis Tomlinson,_ wait!” 

The sound of his name stuns him into a complete stop. He makes to turn around, when a weight comes crashing into him. The two tumble off into the grass, Harry pinning him down before Louis could even gather his senses.

“Go! Don’t wait for me!” He yells, before grabbing his earbud and crushing it between his fingers. Harry grabs his wrists, and pins them above his head. Louis struggles to get free, twisting his arms and trying to buck the other boy off, but Harry is both bigger and stronger than him.

“Let me go!” Louis demands, panting from his efforts. Harry gathers the boy’s thin wrists in one hand, and yanks off his mask. Louis’ mouth snaps shut as he looks at the Prince’s face for the first time in person. Harry moves his hand to Louis’ mask, and slowly removes it. The Prince looks amazed at the boy beneath him, and gently trails his fingers down the side of his face. 

“How did you know?” Louis asks quietly. He stays as still as he can, hoping that this will somehow miraculously end with him getting away. 

It doesn’t seem likely.

“Honestly?” Harry asks, furrowing his brows. “I recognized your arse from across the room.”

Louis’ head thunks against the grass. “You’re fucking kidding me.”

Harry smiles again, brilliant and joyful. “Nope.”

“So what now? You gonna turn me in? Throw me into the dungeon?” Louis questions. 

Harry doesn’t even think it over before he shakes his head. “I was hoping more along the lines of taking you out. To dinner. Or something. A date?”

Louis stares at him. “You’re kidding me right?”

Another shake of the head, and then the Prince is off him, reaching down to gently help him up. “I’m not.”

“Right, because a Prince can fall in love with a thief.” Louis deadpans, pulling his hand from Harry’s as soon as he’s up. 

“Why not?” Harry asks. “I’m a Prince. I can pardon your crimes.”

“As if the Queen would let you.” Louis retorts, somewhat shocked. He thought that Harry would have called for the guards by now, but with each passing minute, Louis felt more and more secure that he wouldn’t.

“She will, if I tell her I’m in love.” Harry responds, smiling and reaching for Louis again. 

Louis takes a step back, shaking his head in denial. “We just met. You aren’t in love with me. That’s insane.” He replies. After a moment, he adds, “No offense intended, your Highness.”

Harry merely smiles again, and shrugs. “I think I am. I think I fell in love the minute I saw you across the room. Won’t you at least give me a chance?” He requests, holding his hand out for Louis again. 

Louis stares at him, trying to ignore the butterflies that have been upsetting his stomach all night, the way that his breath caught in his throat whenever Harry spoke, the way his skin tingled whenever Harry touched him.

He couldn’t.

So he nodded, and took Harry’s hand, as the bells chimed midnight.


End file.
